toblix

BioShock - They weren't kidding...

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I'm just inside Fort Frolic right now, though, away from the game, I'm inadvertently tripping over spoilers left, right and center. It's really fucking annoying because I wanted to avoid them as much as possible.

I'm almost certain I've worked out several of the "secret" achievements already, and the ending just seems like a trivial formality now--thanks to over-zealous podcasters. Why can't people discuss heavily-narrative-dependent games without making disposable comments like, "oh I was totally expecting the ending, because of the way [plot device] worked."

Just shut up! Some of us are working hard to maintain our ignorance and not over-think these things! :(

I've been consoling myself with prolonged high score whoring sessions of Space Giraffe, but maybe I should just knuckle down and complete BioShock and have done with it.

Something else is bothering me about BioShock though: the much-lauded replayability, which our (ex-)very own Chris Remo insisted was palpable. I just can't see it myself. Having carefully examined most nooks and crannies in the game so far, my compulsion to retread the whole thing - just to find maybe a dozen small encounters/discoveries I may have missed the first time around - is dwindling fast.

I'm thinking I'll get this finished and then trade it for something else in all honesty. I can't see it standing the test of time quite the way System Shock 2 did. It seems too disposable an experience, necessitated by some weak design choices (those respawn tanks for example), presumably catering for the less tolerant(?) console gamer.

I'm also finding the combat generally weak at this point, the gun play needlessly imprecise and the plasmids incoherent and awkward to utilise properly. For example:

I've just finished the enzyme collect 'em up mini quest, and the combat for the room with the hives in it struck me as being extremely spammy and cheap.

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Yes.

It might be worth looking out there there for some kind of splitter type thing that acts as a middle man.

I've got a nice thing for my audio leads (red/white ones) that plugs into the target unit's normal red/white audio jacks, but on the other end has a box which has about five more jacks, numbered from one to five. You can then go ahead and plug five device's audio leads into these, and then use a switch on the top to choose which one you want to circuit through to the target unit (in this case, the television).

No idea if something like that's been created for component cables, but seeing as they've been around for ages I'd be surprised if at least one doesn't exist. Component is still analogue so the general concept should still work.

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Yes.

It might be worth looking out there there for some kind of splitter type thing that acts as a middle man.

I've got a nice thing for my audio leads (red/white ones) that plugs into the target unit's normal red/white audio jacks, but on the other end has a box which has about five more jacks, numbered from one to five. You can then go ahead and plug five device's audio leads into these, and then use a switch on the top to choose which one you want to circuit through to the target unit (in this case, the television).

No idea if something like that's been created for component cables, but seeing as they've been around for ages I'd be surprised if at least one doesn't exist. Component is still analogue so the general concept should still work.

...eh?!

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Well, given that SCART is one of your "European" things, I can't really go for that. I don't have enough hookups for my DVD player, cable box, 360, and Wii all at the same time, so I keep the games systems on the same input and just swap whenever I play. Works well enough.

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Canada Europe? Eh?

Anyway, here's a component switcher like I was on about above:

http://www.audiovisualonline.co.uk/dynamic/eshop_products.set/ref/1343/from/froogle/avo-automanual-component-video-switcher/display.html

Also lots of stuff on eBay if that's too expensive.

You can also get fairly cheap SCART switchers:

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin=gbase11.2&prodID=B81669

You seem to be able to get a lot of things like this by just searching for X switcher on Google Products or eBay.

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Note, if you get a mechanical switch box you pay a hell of a lot less and you never lose any signal quality in the switching (which you do with the majority of electronic switchers).

Of course the downside is you have to get up and flick a physical switch, but that's much better than switching 5 plugs around :)

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The switchers I've used (non-mechanical) are so fucking shitty they're useless. I haven't even seen a mechanical switcher in the stores around here.

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I have such a bad experience with switchers (SCART mostly) that I'm [What's the word I'm looking for here? I know there is one, but it totally escapes me!] to buy one and risk reducing the quality of my sexy 360 signal. I'd rather switch manually.

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Hee, yes that's a good point. The switchers I have are mechanical, but I can see how a digital one might be bollocks.

A component switcher should in theory be exactly the same as an audio (red/white) switcher, since they're the same type of cables (RCA). My mechanical audio one doesn't seem to suffer any kind of quality loss so I assume a mechanical component one would be absolutely fine. I'd look for one if I were in your position, anyway -- I have a horrible habit of breaking either the plugs or the jacks when I switch them often. Even managed to arsehole my old Audigy sound card's speaker jack. :(

While on the subject, would a HDMI switcher be better off as non-mechanical seeing as it's a digital signal? Or are they infeasible to even make? Not that it's a concern for a lot of people, but something to consider for media centres in the future.

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I believe there was a news item just over the past couple weeks regarding the first decently functioning HDMI switchers just now starting to emerge. As such, they'd probably be decently expensive, but seems they work.

It's really not that big a deal for me, I don't mind getting up and switching a couple of cables. Didn't mean to turn this into an actual thing.

(toblix, I would have said "loath" or "reluctant." Probably "loath" because I like to sound a bit pretentious from time to time.)

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Finished it!!! You can't spoil anything for me anymore!! Yay!!! No need to avoid threads with BioShock in the title any more. I can surf where I like! :tup:

HUGE SPOILER BELOW!!!

The real twist was halfway through, but it was a confusing one. It looked like he had the code, but of course, I realised later that he didn't know it to begin with. Interesting use of it when he figured it out, though!

Overall a great game. I harvested everyone LS and got the presumably the "good" ending. Wouldn't mind checking out the other one, though. Not sure if I could face going back and doing it all again, although I suppose now I've listened to everyone note and explored every location --- except Sander Cohen's hidden room... how do you open that door? --- I could probably just burn through the missions.

I kind of felt that the "art" level, while very nicely designed, was one bad guy too many. I could have done with some more plot first.

When it comes down to it, BioShock is almost identical to System Shock 2, except it looks like it actually sold a few copies! It's also better designed. The actual gameplay mechanics are vastly improved from SS2, it's a LOT more balanced and you can easily upgrade your character any way you sit fit without removing or sacrificing other skills. In SS2, if you specialised in using your "Psychic" abilities (Plasmids), you'd suck as soon as you ran out of "psychic power" and get creamed repeatedly for having poor gun/weapon skills. Same goes for hacking. In SS2 you could specialise in that to a detriment to other skills, too. In Bioshock they kept it really open ended.

Not sure who it was that complained about the regen booths. They're the same as in SS2, except you had to "use" them for them to update, otherwise you'd be sent back to the last one you "used". The two games are SO similar in many ways.

There was maybe one thing that SS2 did better though, and that's ACCENTS! There were some very dodgy attempts at accents in Bioshock... Not sure how hard it must be to actually find an actor from Germany or England or Australia or whatever. I've also never met a German who actually said "schnell" when they wanted you to do something quicker. Still, minor points.

Bioshock was absolutely stunning to look at. Not just in graphical detail but in sheer design. SS2 suffered from badly designed levels and repetitive space corridors, but Bioshock simply *shines* in its beauty.

I'm surprised there wasn't a little epilogue of someone going down into Rapture... Bioshock 2! Also, for such an incredibly cinematic game, I could have used to nice looking credits with a stirring score instead of just being returned to the main menu :)

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Also, a WEI of 2.0?!!!??? Gimme a break! Are you seriously telling me that Bioshock requires the same system resources as Mine Sweeper and fucking Purble Palace?

I think they need to update that, pronto :tdown:

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Apropos of nothing, I must now tip my hat to the Bioshock marketing team. The girl (not a gamer in any sense, aside from really enjoying Warioware on the Wii) was over tonight and spotted the Big Daddy figure next to my computer monitor.

"Is that that guy from the game that has all those ads with crazy people underwater?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Came with the game."

"Cool. Hey, d'you think I could try it out?"

So yeah, while the console FPS controls and most of the combat system are pretty damned overwhelming to her, the marketing campaign that 2K (or whoever is in charge of that aspect) is running has convinced at least one non-gamer to pick up a 360 contoller. Really impressed me, seeing as the Wii is supposed to be the gateway system at the moment.

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I know it is said that the ending is short, but

Holy fucking shit, is it short! Also, didn't I become a Big Daddy for good, or was that just a joke?

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Please, merciful gods of the Thumb, is there not some way we can remove anything within a spoiler tag from turning up in email notifications?!!

I've just inadvertently ruined the ending of the game now, by reading toblix's comment in the latest thread email I received...

:(:frusty: :frusty: :frusty: :frusty: :frusty::violin::fart::getmecoat:shifty::tdown: :tdown: :tdown: :\

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Please, merciful gods of the Thumb, is there not some way we can remove anything within a spoiler tag from turning up in email notifications?!!

I've just inadvertently ruined the ending of the game now, by reading toblix's comment in the latest thread email I received...

It doesn't spoil all that much, thankfully. Also, do you know about the XBox360 cache thing? Apparently there's not a problem with the last patch, it's just old cache data conflicting with the new patch... Just empty the cache by holding L+R bumpers while booting or something.

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Ah, close call, but you'll find you're not really that spoiled.

That spoilers are unveiled in emails are unacceptable.

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I know it is said that the ending is short, but

Holy fucking shit, is it short! Also, didn't I become a Big Daddy for good, or was that just a joke?

You never became a Big Daddy for good. You were just mimicking one, save for the little voice rearrangement. So you went out to the real world and raised the girls like a normal human, but you did it with a fucked up vocal chord.

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You never became a Big Daddy for good. You were just mimicking one, save for the little voice rearrangement. So you went out to the real world and raised the girls like a normal human, but you did it with a fucked up vocal chord.

Really? I guess that makes sense, dousing myself in the smell and all. Didn't Fontaine go on and on about turning into one being a one-way street and whatever? I was thinking (sort of hoping) that in the end you were just tricked into being another hulking protector slowly walking the corridors of Rapture or something. The boss fight bordered on lame. I guess I was expecting something as unexpecting as the "fight" against Ryan, and instead I had to destroy Fire Fontaine and Ice Fontaine and Electric Fontaine.

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I'm really happy every time games like these have great mainstream success. I hate it when I talk about a game I like and people have never even heard of it.

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